Display panel with transparent conductor based isolator and method for improved wireless communications

ABSTRACT

A communication device includes at least one radio that comprises signal processing circuitry, and at least one antenna coupled to the signal processing circuitry to send and receive radio signals. A component of the communication device requires user visibility and includes an isolator for isolating the at least one antenna, the isolator comprising at least one film that includes a transparent conductor. The component that requires user visibility may be a display screen or part of the chassis of a transparent communication device. The transparent conductor comprises a transparent conducting oxide such as indium tin oxide, indium tin oxide ink, graphite material, carbon nanotubes, or a conductive polymer.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/570,903, filed Dec. 15, 2014, which is incorporated by referenceherein in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Some embodiments relate to wireless communications. Some embodimentsrelate to Wi-Fi networks and networks operating in accordance with oneof the IEEE 802.11 standards. Some embodiments relate to uplinkmulti-user MIMO (UL MU-MIMO) communications. Some embodiments relate todisplay panels. Embodiments described herein relate generally toimproved antenna isolation using thin films of transparent conductingoxides on the display of a communication platform.

BACKGROUND

The conventional approach for platform antenna isolation is to place theantenna component at essentially the farthest distance from the othercomponents of the platform in order to obtain minimum undesired antennacoupling. This is limited by a compact platform with limited space.Currently there is a need for antenna isolation in multi-radioplatforms, particularly those that employ multiple input-multipleoutputs (MIMO).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an isolation testing setup for an isolation studyuseful for an embodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates the measured S12 of two antennas at WiFi™ frequenciesusing an embodiment.

FIG. 3 illustrates a side view a stack of components that make up adisplay according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates an electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structurecomprising a transparent conduction oxide according to an embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates a functional block diagram of user equipment (UE) inaccordance with some embodiments.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The conventional approach for platform antenna isolation is to place theantenna component(s) at essentially the farthest distance from the othercomponents of the platform to obtain maximum isolation for an antenna,and minimum coupling between and among a plurality of antennas. This islimited by a compact platform with limited space. Orthogonal antennapolarization is also implemented in mobile platforms to increaseisolation. But such antenna polarization is limited to 3 in3-dimensional space. In a realistic mobile platform implementation, therealistic antenna orthogonally is 2. As MIMO increases to greater than2, invisible transparent conductor isolation addresses these challengesto further improve isolation without number limitation.

Antenna isolation can be enhanced by using an essentially invisibletransparent conductor design in the large display panel of acommunication platform, or device, to improve the isolation for theentire system. Transparent conductors may include transparent conductingoxides (TCO) such as indium tin oxide (ITO), and other compounds, thathave marginal impact on the visibility of a display.

In the past, wireless components were not placed on the display of adevice such as, in an embodiment, a mobile phone. The disclosedinnovation places large areas of transparent material on the display.Most of the transparent material comprises transparent conductors thatare based on, in one embodiment, ITO. Other similar compounds may beused. Antenna and system isolation is enhanced using transparentconductor based isolation for this large display panel to improve theisolations for the entire system. Further, this new isolator design isnot limited to the display only, but can be applied to any otherplatform component which has visibility requirements, like the back ofthe communication platform chassis. This requirement may be for, invarious embodiments, transparent communication devices, flexibledevices, and the like, which may require transparent or see-throughchassis components.

As mentioned above, the disclosed antenna integration with displaypanels improves the isolation for the entire system in which the displayis a component and boosts MIMO antenna performance. Further, thistransparent isolator design utilizes previously unusable display panelarea and optimizes mobile platform performance. This allows more radiosto be integrated in a mobile platform with minimum crosstalk than couldbe integrated into the mobile platform without the isolator, or the samenumber of radios integrated into a smaller mobile platform with theisolator. In other words, including the isolator in a mobile platformallows an increased density, or number, of radios in the mobileplatform.

In one embodiment an indium tin oxide (ITO) based electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structure may be designed at 2.4 GHz and used as the isolatorfilm. In other embodiments structures other than EBG may be usedprovided that transparent conductor based structures which comprise, invarious embodiments, ITO, ITO ink, graphite, carbon nanotubes,conductive polymers, and other oxide materials are used.

FIG. 1 illustrates an isolation testing setup for an isolation study. Inone embodiment an ITO based EBG structure may be designed at 2.4 GHz.Various scenarios or designs for the platform antenna isolationimprovement technique using a transparent EBG design have been tested,and isolation improvement has been measured, in the laboratory. As seenin FIG. 1 a testing setup 100 tests the S12 of two antennas.S-parameters describe the input-output relationship between ports (orterminals) in an electrical system. If there are two ports, Port 1 andPort 2, then S12 represents the power transferred from Port 2 to Port 1.S21, on the other hand represents the power transferred from Port 1 toPort 2. Therefore, the testing currently described measures theundesired power transferred from one antenna to the other antenna.

Continuing with FIG. 1, test setup 100 comprises two antennas, 110 and120. The antennas are placed on a glass surface 150 that includes a TCOfilm, in this case ITO using an EBG structure. Wires 130 and 140 areconnected respectively to antennas 110 and 120 for an isolation studythat measures the isolation between the two antennas. Invisible touchtechniques that use beams of light to turn a flat space into a touchscreen may be used in this testing. The isolator may be coexistent withthe touch sensor component(s). The isolation improvement between twoWiFi antennas has be measured for various test cases such as one andthree EBG ITO based isolators, and three transparent conductors, such astransparent conductors on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from AsahiGlass Co., Ltd. (AGC). Gains of approximately 6 dB to 10 dB fordifferent testing setups have been measured.

FIG. 2 illustrates the measured S12 of the two antennas 110, 120 of FIG.1 at WiFi frequencies for two cases. Curve 210 represents S12 withoutisolation on the display 150 of FIG. 1. Curve 220 represents S12 with anITO film comprising an EBG structure on the display 150. The measuredisolation advantage using ITO isolation is 6 dB as can be seen by theindicated vertical distance between the two curves at or nearfrequencies of 2.4 GHz to 2.6 GHz. The frequencies and the S12 value arenoted at coordinates X and Y, respectively, in FIG. 2, Otherexperimental measurements using the same or a similar testing setup canbe applied between any general antennas. Performance gains are notlimited to the WiFi band only but other frequency bands suitable forwireless communication may be used.

FIG. 3 illustrates a side view a stack of components that make up adisplay according to an embodiment. The components, in exaggerateddimension, comprise a stack of components that make up a display suchas, in one embodiment, a flexible flat panel display for a mobile phone.The stack 300 comprises cover glass 305, touch glass 315, touch sensor325, top polarizer 335, color filter glass 345, liquid crystal 350, thinfilm transistor (TFT) layer 355, TFT glass 360 and bottom polarizer 365.This is only one of a number of embodiments of a display that may beused for isolation. A layer of isolator, such as ITO, may be placed atany of three places in the stack. In an embodiment the ITO layer 310 maybe on the top of touch glass 315. In an embodiment a layer of isolator320 may be part of the touch sensor 325. In an embodiment layer ofisolator 330 may be at the bottom of touch sensor 325. And isolatordesigns with more than one layer of transparent conductor can be placedin these three layers 310, 320, and 330. Three more possible options areto place the TCO film above the color filter glass 340, below colorfilter glass 340, and around TFT layer 355. A 3D isolator may be placedbetween one or more of the layers as appropriate or necessary.

One or more embodiments can also be used to create isolation betweenmultiple wireless subcomponents. Antennas may be the primary example forisolation, but there are other subcomponents that could be integratedinto or be separate from the antenna, and these subcomponents maybenefit from the isolation described herein. These could include amatching network as well as other wireless communication protocols suchas, without limitation, BLUE TOOTH™ (BT), ultra-wideband (UWB) and nearfield communication (NFC). One or more embodiment could be used as alayer to layer isolation or as a structure between layers (2D and 3D).The material can be indium tin oxide (ITO) but also any transparentconductor, including graphene and other transparent conductors. Inaddition, the term “transparent” can mean not perceived, invisible, orvisible with an optical translucence of greater than eighty percent(80%), such that other materials or structures may be included withinthe term “transparent.”

FIG. 4 illustrates an EBG structure comprising a transparent conductingoxide according to an embodiment. Such an EBG structure may be used asthe ITO layer. The EBG structure 405 comprises ITO. Holes 410, 415, . .. , 450 may comprise merely air, such that the component below it inFIG. 3 may be seen. In one embodiment, the radius of the holes issubstantially 2 mm, and the distance between centers of adjacent holesis substantially 5 mm.

FIG. 5 illustrates a functional block diagram of a communicationplatform with which the antenna isolation described herein may be used,in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments thecommunication platform may be UE configured to operation in a mobilecommunication network, such as a 3GPP LTE network, while in otherembodiments, the communication platform may be a communication station(STA) configured to operation in a Wi-Fi network. The embodiments arenot limited to 3GPP LTE networks, or Wi-Fi networks. In accordance withsome embodiments, the open systems interconnection media access control(MAC) circuitry 504 may be arranged to contend for a wireless mediumconfigure frames or packets for communicating over the wireless mediumand the physical layer (PRY) circuitry 502 may be arranged to transmitand receive signals. The PHY 502 may include circuitry formodulation/demodulation, upconversion/downconversion, filtering,amplification, etc. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 506 ofthe UE 500 may include one or more processors. In some embodiments, twoor more antennas may be coupled to the physical layer circuitry arrangedfor sending and receiving signals. The memory 508 may be storeinformation for configuring the processing circuitry 506 to performoperations for configuring and transmitting UE frames and performing thevarious operations described herein.

In some embodiments, the communication platform 500 may be part of aportable wireless communication device, such as a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wirelesscommunication capability, a web tablet, a wireless telephone, asmartphone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, adigital camera, an access point, a television, a medical device (e.g., aheart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), or other devicethat may receive and/or transmit information wirelessly. In someembodiments, the platform 500 may include one or more of a keyboard, adisplay, a non-volatile memory port, multiple antennas, a graphicsprocessor, an application processor, speakers, and other mobile deviceelements. The display may be a liquid crystal display (LCD) screenincluding a touch screen.

The one or more antennas 501 utilized by the communication platform 500may comprise one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas,including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patchantennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas or other types of antennassuitable for transmission of RF signals. In some embodiments, instead oftwo or more antennas, a single antenna with multiple apertures may beused. In these embodiments, each aperture may be considered a separateantenna. In some MIMO embodiments, the antennas may be effectivelyseparated to take advantage of spatial diversity and the differentchannel characteristics that may result between each of antennas and theantennas of a transmitting station. In some MIMO embodiments, theantennas may be separated by up to 1/10 of a wavelength or more.

Embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination of hardware,firmware and software. Embodiments may also be implemented asinstructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium, which may beread and executed by at least one processor to perform the operationsdescribed herein. A computer-readable storage medium may include anynon-transitory mechanism for storing information in a form readable by amachine (e.g., a computer). For example, a computer-readable storagemedium may include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM),magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memorydevices, and other storage devices and media. In these embodiments, oneor more processors may be configured with the instructions to performthe operations described herein. In some embodiments, the communicationplatform 500 may be configured to receive orthogonal frequency divisionmultiplexing (OFDM) communication signals over a multicarriercommunication channel in accordance with an orthogonal frequencydivision multiple access (OFDMA) communication technique. The OFDMsignals may comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers. In somebroadband multicarrier embodiments, Evolved Node Bs (eNBs) may be s maybe part of a broadband wireless access (BWA) network communicationnetwork, such as a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access(WiMAX) communication network or a 3rd Generation Partnership Project(3GPP) Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN)Long-Term-Evolution (LTE) or a Long-Term-Evolution (LTE) communicationnetwork, although the scope of the invention is not limited in thisrespect. In these broadband tnulticarrier embodiments, the platform 500and the eNBs may be configured to communicate in accordance with anOFDMA technique. Although the communication platform 500 is illustratedas having several separate functional elements, one or more of thefunctional elements may be combined and may be implemented bycombinations of software-configured elements, such as processingelements including digital signal processors (DSPs), and/or otherhardware elements. For example, some elements may comprise one or moremicroprocessors, DSPs, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs),radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), radio-frequency integratedcircuits (RFICs) and combinations of various hardware and logiccircuitry for performing at least the functions described herein. Insome embodiments, the functional elements may refer to one or moreprocesses operating on one or more processing elements.

EXAMPLES AND ADDITIONAL NOTES

In Example 1, a display panel can include plurality of display panelcomponents, and an antenna isolator that comprises at least one filmthat includes a transparent conductor in contact with at least one ofthe display panel components.

In Example 2, the at least one film of Example 1 can optionally includea plurality of films that include a transparent conductor.

In Example 3, the plurality of films that include a transparentconductor of any one or more of Examples 1-2 can optionally include atleast two films each of which includes a different transparentconductor.

In Example 4, any one or more of Examples 1-3 can optionally comprise anelectromagnetic bandgap structure that comprises the transparentconductor.

In Example 5, the transparent conductor of any one or more of Examples1-4 can optionally be or comprise a transparent conducting oxide.

In Example 6, the transparent conductor of any one or more of Examples1-5 can optionally be or comprise indium tin oxide.

In Example 7, transparent conductor of any one or more of Examples 1-6can optionally be or comprise one of a graphite material, carbonnanotubes, a conductive polymer, or ITO ink.

In Example 8, the display panel of any one or more of Examples 1-7 canoptionally be or comprise a touch screen.

In Example 9, the display panel of any one or more of Examples 1-8 canoptionally be coupled to at least one antenna for providing antennaisolation that allows an increased number of radios to be integrated ina wireless communication device.

In Example 10, the display panel of any one or more of Examples 1-9, theat least one antenna can optionally be or comprise a plurality ofantennas configured for one of multiple input multiple output (MIMO)operation, WiFi operation, or Long Term Evolution (LTE) operation.

In Example 11 User Equipment (UE) can optionally comprise at least oneradio comprising signal processing circuitry, at least one antennacoupled to the signal processing circuitry to send and receive radiosignals, and a UE component that requires visibility to a user, thecomponent including an isolator comprising at least one film thatcomprises a transparent conductor, the isolator for isolating the atleast one antenna.

In Example 12, the at least one antenna of Example 11 can optionally beor comprise a plurality of antennas and the UE can optionally beconfigured to operate with a 3GPP LTE cellular network.

In Example 13, the at least one antenna of any one or more of Examples11-12 can optionally be or comprise a plurality of antennas and the UEcan optionally be or comprise a communication station (STA) configuredto operate in a WiFi network.

In Example 14, the UE of any one or more of Examples 11-13 canoptionally comprise memory for storing information for configuring theprocessing circuitry to perform configuring operations.

In Example 15, the UE component of any one or more of Examples 11-14 canoptionally be or comprise a display panel.

In Example 16, the display panel of any one or more of Examples 11-15can be or comprise a touch screen.

In Example 17, the UE component of any one or more of Examples 11-16 canoptionally be or comprise at least part of the chassis of one of atransparent communication device, a see-through communication device, ora flexible communication device.

In Example 18, the isolator of one or more of Examples 11-17 canoptionally allow an increased number of radios integrated in the UE.

In Example 19, the at least one film of the Examples 11-18 canoptionally be or comprise a plurality of films that comprise atransparent conductor.

In Example 20, the plurality of films of any one or more of Examples11-19 can optionally be or comprise a transparent conductor comprisingat least two films each including a different transparent conductor.

In Example 21, the electromagnetic bandgap structure of any one or moreof Examples 11-20 can optionally be or comprise the transparentconductor.

In Example 22, the transparent conductor of any one or more of Examples11-21 can optionally be or comprise a transparent conducting oxide.

In Example 23, the transparent conductor of any one or more of Examples11-22 can optionally be or comprise indium tin oxide.

In Example 24, the transparent conductor of any one or more of Examples11-23 can optionally be or comprise one of a graphite material, carbonnanotubes, a conductive polymer, or ITO ink.

In Example 25, a method of operating User Equipment (UE) that can beconfigured to comprise at least one radio comprising signal processingcircuitry, a plurality of antennas coupled to the signal processingcircuitry to send and receive radio signals, and a UE component thatrequires visibility to a user, the component including thereon anisolator comprising at least one film that comprises a transparentconductor, the isolator for isolating the plurality of antennas canoptionally be or comprise comprising sending first radio signals fromthe at least one radio via at least one of the plurality of antennas toat least one Evolved Node B (eNB) and receiving second radio signalsfrom at least one eNB by one or more of the plurality of antennas.

In Example 26, the at least one film of Example 25 can optionally be orcomprise a transparent conductor and the LIE can optionally beconfigured to operate with a 3GPP LTE cellular network.

In Example 27, the at least one film of any one or more of Examples25-26 can optionally be or comprise a transparent conductor, and the UEcan optionally be or comprise a communication station (STA) configuredto operate in a Wi-Fi network.

In Example 28, the transparent conductor of any one or more of Examples25-27 can optionally be or comprise one of indium tin oxide, graphitematerial, carbon nanotubes, a conductive polymer, or ITO ink.

In Example 29, the LE component of any one or more of Examples 25-28 canoptionally be or comprise a display panel.

In Example 30, the display panel of any one or more of Examples 25-29can optionally be or comprise a touch screen.

Example 31 can comprise, or can optionally be combined with any portionor combination of any portions of any one or more of Examples 1 through30 to include subject matter that can comprise means for performing anyone or more of the functions of Examples 1 through 30, or amachine-readable medium including instructions that, when performed by amachine, cause the machine to perform any one or more of the functionsof Examples 1 through 30.

The above detailed description includes references to the accompanyingdrawings, which form a part of the detailed description. The drawingsshow, by way of illustration, specific embodiments in which theinvention can be practiced. These embodiments are also referred toherein as “examples.” All publications, patents, and patent documentsreferred to in this document are incorporated by reference herein intheir entirety, as though individually incorporated by reference. In theevent of inconsistent usages between this document and those documentsso incorporated by reference, the usage in the incorporated reference(s)should be considered supplementary to that of this document; forirreconcilable inconsistencies, the usage in this document controls.

In this document, the terms “a” or “an” are used, as is common in patentdocuments, to include one or more than one, independent of any otherinstances or usages of “at least one” or “one or more.” In thisdocument, the term “or” is used to refer to a nonexclusive or, such that“A or B” includes “A but not B,” “B but not A,” and “A and B,” unlessotherwise indicated. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and“in which” are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respectiveterms “comprising” and “wherein.” Also, in the following claims, theterms “including” and “comprising” are open-ended, that is, a system,device, article, or process that includes elements in addition to thoselisted after such a term in a claim are still deemed to fall within thescope of that claim. Moreover, in the following claims, the terms“first,” “second,” and “third,” etc. are used merely as labels, and arenot intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

The above description is intended to be illustrative, and notrestrictive. For example, the above-described examples (or one or moreaspects thereof) may be used in combination with each other. Otherembodiments can be used, such as by one of ordinary skill in the artupon reviewing the above description. Also, in the above DetailedDescription, various features may be grouped together to streamline thedisclosure. This should not be interpreted as intending that anunclaimed disclosed feature is essential to any claim. Rather, inventivesubject matter may lie in less than all features of a particulardisclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporatedinto the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as aseparate embodiment. The scope of the invention should be determinedwith reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope ofequivalents to which such claims are entitled.

The Abstract is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. Section 1.72(b)requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to ascertain the natureand gist of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with theunderstanding that it will not be used to limit or interpret the scopeor meaning of the claims. The following claims are hereby incorporatedinto the detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as aseparate embodiment.

What is claimed is:
 1. A display comprising: a plurality of displaypanel components; and an antenna layer disposed between one of theplurality of display panel components and at least one isolation layer,wherein the plurality of display panel components includes at least oneof a protection coating layer, a display panel, a touch panel, or acover.
 2. The display of claim 1 wherein the antenna layer is disposedbetween the touch panel and a first isolation layer of the at least oneisolation layer.
 3. The display of claim 1 wherein one of the pluralityof display panel components comprises a transparent window cover.
 4. Thedisplay of claim 1 wherein one of the plurality of display panelcomponents comprises a cover glass.
 5. The display of claim 1 whereinone of the plurality of display panel components comprises a touchsensor component.
 6. The display of claim 1 wherein one of the pluralityof display panel components comprises a conductive ink.
 7. The displayof claim 1 wherein one of the plurality of display panel componentscomprises a polarizer.
 8. The display of claim 1 wherein the at leastone isolation layer comprises a transparent film.
 9. The display ofclaim 1 wherein the cover is one of plastic, tempered glass, thin-filmglass or a resin film.
 10. The display of claim 1 wherein the antennalayer is disposed between the display panel and a second isolation layerof the at least one isolation layer.
 11. The display of claim 1 whereinthe antenna layer is disposed between the cover and a first isolationlayer of the at least one isolation layer.
 12. A method of producing adisplay comprising: producing a plurality of display panel components;and disposing an antenna layer between one of the plurality of displaypanel components and at least one isolation layer, wherein the pluralityof display panel components includes at least one of a protectioncoating layer, a display panel, a touch panel, or a cover.
 13. Themethod of producing the display of claim 12 wherein disposing theantenna layer between one of the plurality of display panel componentsand at least one isolation layer comprises disposing the antenna layerbetween the touch panel and a first isolation layer of the at least oneisolation layer.
 14. The method of producing the display of claim 12wherein one of the plurality of display panel components comprises atransparent window cover.
 15. The method of producing the display ofclaim 12 wherein one of the plurality of display panel componentscomprises a cover glass.
 16. The method of producing the display ofclaim 12 wherein one of the plurality of display panel componentscomprises a touch sensor component.
 17. The method of producing thedisplay of claim 12 wherein one of the plurality of display panelcomponents comprises a conductive ink.
 18. The method of producing thedisplay of claim 12 wherein one of the plurality of display panelcomponents comprises a polarizer.
 19. The method of producing thedisplay of claim 12 wherein the at least one isolation layer comprises atransparent film.
 20. The method of producing the display of claim 12wherein the cover is one of plastic, tempered glass, thin-film glass ora resin film.
 21. The method of producing the display of claim 12wherein disposing the antenna layer between one of the plurality ofdisplay panel components and at least one isolation layer comprisesdisposing the antenna layer between the display panel and a secondisolation layer of the at least one isolation layer.
 22. The method ofproducing the display of claim 12 wherein disposing the antenna layerbetween one of the plurality of display panel components and at leastone isolation layer comprises disposing the antenna layer between thecover and a first isolation layer of the at least one isolation layer.23. A display comprising: a plurality of display panel components; atleast one isolation means; and antenna means disposed between one of theplurality of display panel components and the at least one isolationmeans, wherein the plurality of display panel components includes atleast one of a protection coating layer, a display panel, a touch panel,or a cover.
 24. The display of claim 23 wherein the antenna means isdisposed between the touch panel and a first isolation means of the atleast one isolation means.
 25. The display of claim 23 wherein theantenna means is disposed between the display panel and a secondisolation means of the at least one isolation means.
 26. The display ofclaim 23 wherein the antenna means is disposed between the cover and afirst isolation means of the at least one isolation means.